20 Goals for 2019

I know the year is already half over, but here are my goals for 2019 (this was not finished earlier as my goals kept changing). 

Social Goals

1. Be observant (of other humans)

Stop thinking about myself and observe what others are feeling.

2. Overlook rudeness, and reframe as much as possible.

I learned this from an interview with Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  I've noticed that I tend to misinterpret situations more than 50% of the time. I need to remind myself that, more often than not, people don’t mean to hurt me.  As a clueless engineer working among possibly even more clueless engineers, I should realize I'm bumping up against low EQ (emotional intelligence) rather than malicious intent.

3. Control my anger

Or channel the anger in a skilled way. Try centering myself in the midst of an anger inducing situation, and channeling the anger into making a “boundary” and focussing it in my responses.

4. Get rejected at least once a week 

Rejection is my biggest fear! Hopefully exposing myself to more of it will help me be less fearful of it.

5. Be vulnerable

As I've grown older, I've become more and more private, saving my innermost thoughts only for those close to me. In order to make connections, I need to be more vulnerable, but not in a socially unacceptable way that prematurely forces intimacy, or when the person doesn’t deserve it.

6. Don't be a bully

I get really impatient with people I perceive to be stupid. Or to be absolutely correct, I get really impatient with people who are deluded about their ignorance or lack of skills (see my post about how to handle people like this). I should not discriminate against people on the basis of their ignorance or incompetence, just like I shouldn't discriminate on the basis of gender or sex. I'm only being slightly facetious, here. Stupid is not something one chooses to be.

Physical Goals

7. Take a gym class 3X/week (or spend 60 minutes at the gym).

8. Walk a minimum of 7000 steps on the days that I don’t take a gym class, or do cardio in the gym for 30 minutes instead. 

9. Strengthen my back and core muscles with yoga, pilates, weights and barre.

10. Self-care: Take more steam baths and take better care of my skin.

11. Eat more vegetables and fruit.

12. Minimize the times I eat until I am past full.

Career Goals

13. Try something new at work. Ask my boss if I can represent the company at a conference. Interface with the customer more.
14. Read (or listen to) management, social skills, and communication books to improve my career.
15. Be more curious about the people I work with. Ask them about their day or something personal.
16. Continue to take big design risks. It seems like every time I do something bold, like contributing a design without being asked, it pays off (such as receiving a patent).
17. Dig deeper. Scrape below the surface with my analysis and with my line of questioning.

Fun Goals

18. Have more IRL fun. Don’t be a hermit all the time. Even though I live a rich internal life through books, movies and video games, sometimes I need to remind myself that real life is more piquant. If consuming video games is like candy, hanging out with my friends/family is like a healthy, nourishing meal.
19. Frame more pictures and paintings. Since being denied an office in my new work building, I’ve been obsessed with decorating my cubicle so that I don’t feel so deprived. I’ve decorated my cube with accessories from Ikea and West Elm, and there are now several plants enjoying my primo real estate under the skylight (so bright, I almost need to wear sunscreen every day). Now, I don’t wish for any of the offices (they look like jail cells), and I feel like I’m at the spa every time I work at my desk. I’ve even gotten several compliments on how nice my cube looks, although I think the natural lighting does most of the heavy lifting.
20. Organize a trip with family and/or friends: Thanksgiving in Hawaii? Christmas in Europe? Roadtrip to Disneyland?

A Story For When I Feel Pessimistic

There’s a lot in the world to be pessimistic about right now. When Trump was elected, I screamed inside. I didn’t know what kind of country I was going to wake up to the following morning. The country was so vehemently sexist and so full of hatred and anger, that they voted for a malignant, racist, narcissist over arguably the most qualified presidential candidate to ever exist in the history of our country. Now that the mid-term elections are nearing, my mood is in a word: pessimistic. Because of gerrymandering, and because half the country is under the thrall of conservative state TV (Fox), and because terrorist acts perpetrated by violent white men have happened in recent days, I have doubts that normal democratic processes will actually endure this coming election day. 

But something happened to me today that actually had me sobbing in my car on my way home, and sobbing even as I write these words. My V.P. of Engineering is hands down one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever met. Because he is getting on in years, I am sometimes the repository of his pearls of wisdom. He said something that was so prescient today, that I felt like I could, just for a moment, glimpse past the micro-problems of our day, and it had me gasping.

ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles) are responsible for delivering nuclear warheads. After the rocket fuel is exhausted, the ICBM is essentially radio silent. If it isn’t radio silent than foreign enemies can hack into it and possibly jam it. If the rocket is essentially dumb/unhackable and radio silent, than how possibly can it reach it’s destination, and within feet of it? 

They launched test missiles from Edwards Air Force Base in California into the middle of the Pacific Ocean, using only simple Newtonian physics to drive them, but the missiles they launched did not reach their goal. When they relaunched the same missile after tweaking what they thought was a faulty rocket motor, the same result happened. Then some smart person realized they needed to do more than use simple idealized trajectories. The missiles had been pulled off course by tiny changes in gravity during flyover. 

So this is how we solved it. We MAPPED the earth’s gravitational disturbances. We launched a fleet of satellites and tracked their speeds and altitudes as they orbited the Earth. The extra gravitation pull from a mountain range, we logged it. The placid pull from the oceans, we mapped it. Even the minute fluctuations of the ground water, we recorded. Any ICBM that will ever be launched will be launched with a single set of mathematical coordinates. Without ever having any sensorial input on where it is in space, it will reach its target, having taken into account every ditch, hill, stream it will have passed. This might be the first and last time a gargantuan feat of science and engineering had me so awestruck, that I literally trembled in my socks.

This is WHY North Korea will be decades away from launching an accurate nuclear warhead on an ICBM, if they ever will. This is WHY we will eventually reverse global warming. This is why, even though our White House and Congress, and perhaps even our Supreme Court, is full of nincompoops, we will eventually come out on top.

The technical brilliance within our country is astounding. The technical talent is so deep, that even now it is not fully realized.

The depth and magnitude of our labor resources is breathtaking. 

We WILL pull through this. If not in this election cycle, then the next, or a couple of decades from now. Our country, even our planet, might be under threat, but we WILL meet this challenge. The next time I am feeling pessimistic about my country, or the world even, I should look back on this moment when I was awestruck.

Why Me? and other January Tales

The month of January was a rough one. I came into the new year fired up on a project, one which had real impact on the company, and one which I would demonstrate ownership and leadership in changing how we performed engineering. I did a fairly good job of gathering information and getting peoples' opinions and assimilating them into a proposal to be presented to higher management. When it came to making a final proposal to management, however, I bombed! I was completely tongue tied. Frankly, I made a fool of myself. Unfortunately, I think my manager lost a little faith in me after my poor presentation. I would go so far to say that he attributed the results of my work to the more senior members who were involved with the project, and not me at all.

Later, I had to tackle an important engineering problem. Unfortunately, I really frustrated my boss for being slow. He had tried giving me greater leeway to perform my own investigation. Unfortunately, my boss's goals and mine were not aligned, so I ended up being late on delivering the work. Also, I received some negative attention from the CEO who wondered if I was the right person for that job, and whether they needed to hire a consultant. Well, my manager told me this story in an attempt to light a fire under my ass, and I attribute it as such. However, it is always hard to pick yourself up and perform after being told such a story.

Anyways, the point of this story is that everyone goes through a period or rough patch where they ask themselves, "Why me?", and they firmly believe that the world is out to get them. That is the way that I feel sometimes. And it is hard to convince myself, sometimes, that I am not receiving the short end of the stick, or being the target of some poor treatment. Although the latest spiritual gurus and psychology experts claim that you aren't the center of the universe, and that noone is targeting you, I AM beginning to think that some people do attract more ill will from people than others due to their being less socially or politically skilled, being meek, or just with their plain being so brilliant as to incur the jealousy of everyone else.

Case in point: Hillary Clinton. I am in the process of reading Hillary Clinton's autobiography, "Living History", which she wrote about her life up to her winning the senatorship of New York. The number of attacks from the right wing on this lady was unprecedented, and was certainly directed at Hillary specifically. I think that perhaps Hillary's brilliance had something to do with how vilified she was (we all know how mysognistic this society is). However, I also think she was the target because she was obviously wounded and embittered, and bitter people attract bad luck. The enemy likes to kick you when you're down.

I wish that someone could tell me that I am wrong about my theory that some people are more targetted than others, at least in my case.

On Obama and Race

I did not have the opportunity to vote this election year, since I was in China on election day. However, if I had been home, I would have voted for Obama over McCain. I just cannot vote for someone who is not pro-choice. Also, under McCain, I believe the nation would have continued on this path of the rich getting richer and at the expense of the middle class.

However, I have not been carried away by this feeling of euphoria in the air since Obama was elected, despite the fact that I, like Obama, am a fellow Chicagoan, and a fellow minority. Or is it because of it?

I am still smarting from Hillary Clinton's loss, and still think she is more experienced than Obama. However, there is more.

When I look deeply into my heart, I begin to see the misgivings that I have. As a young Asian girl wandering around the streets of Chicago, I have been the focus of racism. It was subtle racism from the part of the Whites. But the most blatant and traumatic racism I have ever experienced were from the part of African American people.

In my Hyde Park neighborhood, walking home, a group of teenage Black men walking on the opposide of the street, taunting: "Chink... Chink..."

In a high-end, Chicago grocery store just a few years ago, while checking out, the Black bag clerk: "Ching Chang Chong hong..." I complained to the store manager, however, the White manager makes excuses for the boy, "Oh, he is just immature." More racism, this time from the White guy.

I am not saying that Obama is one of those ignorant, underprivileged, blacks. On the contrary. I believe that he is tolerant, race-blind and extremely intelligent. It is that his election has thrown the racism that STILL exists in American into high relief. I don't believe that Obama's winning the presidency means that the country is enlightened and race-blind. No. I believe that many of the whites and blacks who voted for Obama are still racist, may turn around and be racist against Asians. Has Oprah ever had an Asian guest? Will there ever be a hit movie starring an Asian and a Black that did not involve racial jokes? With Obama in the presidency, I wonder if Asians will now take the third or 4th tier behind the Whites, Blacks, and Hispanics. I think this way, because as a child in Chicago, and recently as an adult visiting Chicago, I have been the victim of racism. If just as recently as a few years ago, I experienced racism, can a country really be that race-blind?

I will get off of my rant, now, and try to believe that the country really is better... (By the way, some of my friends in grade-school were Black.)

Wedding Band Rant

Tungsten Carbide Wedding Band

Our goals for our wedding bands was to have them fabricated out of really cool engineering materials, the more exotic the better, and preferably custom machined. After searching for a few hours at the mall, I got Mark this incredibly cool tungsten-carbide ring with a brushed metal center stripe, similar to the one pictured above. I, however, was not so lucky. There are no interesting metal choices available for women. Apparently, women are not interested in functional metal alloys, but are more attracted to shiny things. The only options available to me were gold, or platinum, hopefully with diamonds inlaid.

First, a discussion of why tungsten-carbide is so cool. It is really, really hard (75-80 Rockwell C) and is therefore, for all intensive purposes, unscratchable. It's strength and hardness make it ideal for use as end-mills for machining other metals.

Tungsten Carbide End Mills

It was really important for me to have something other than gold or platinum as a wedding ring. I have an extreme metal sensitivity. My platinum engagement ring has been giving me blisters. Even my watch's stainless steel band has been giving me a rash. I also want a ring made from a functional metal alloy, because it states something about who I am: a somewhat iconoclastic person, and also a female with a desire for function and technical detail.

Finally, after visiting jewelry store after store, I began to realize there was a bias against providing women functional metal choices. Jewelers don't think women are interested in having tungsten carbide, or titanium rings. Jewelers think women are interested in buying the rarest metals possible. That all we care about is what prestige we will earn amongst our friends. At the Bailey Banks and Biddles jewelry store, the saleswoman literally sneered when I asked her if she had titanium rings. She said, "We don't carry that stuff, only gold and platinum."

I got this titanium alloy wedding band

When I came home, however, I searched online and found myself an aircraft grade titanium alloy wedding band sized for women's fingers. The exact model of what I bought can be seen above. The cost? $65. The mechanical properties for the aircraft grade Titanium 6Al 4V alloy comprising this ring can be seen in the table below. It's hardness and strength properties make it very similar to half hard 302 stainless steel. In the real world, I believe this makes it comparable to 18-8 or 18-10 stainless steel cutlery (I heard that 18-8,18-10 is an antiquated term for 300 series stainless steel). However, the titanium is far lighter than steel, which makes it a very desirable property to have for making aircraft components, or for manufacturing bicycles.

This Litespeed bike frame is made entirely of titanium

Still, I think I would have preferred to custom machine my own wedding band. My immediate choice would have been to machine it out of annealed 420 SS and then harden it to 55 Rockwell C. This particular brand of stainless steel is so hard, it is used to make surgical scalpels and other surgical tools. As you can see from the table above, it is not quite as hard as tungsten carbide, but edges over the tungsten-carbide in terms of ultimate tensile strength. It would have made a nice complement to Mark's ring. But I am not complaining. My titanium ring is a whole lot more hypoallergenic.

Hillary Clinton's Senatorial Record is more Substantive than Obama's

In this blog entry, I aim to compare Obama's senatorial legislative record versus Clinton's senatorial record. In it, I will counter the argument that the hundreds of legislative acts that Obama supposedly authored during his 3 years in the Senate actually show that Obama's legislative record is more substantial than Clinton's. Through the following blog entry, I will show that the opposite is actually the case.

It appears as though Obama was an author of quite a few acts, however many of these, were never passed. I, personally, am most impressed with the alternative fuel acts that Obama co-authored or sponsored. However, none of these were ever implemented, such as:

American Fuels Act
Biofuels Security Act
Alternative Diesel Standard

When you look at the acts that Obama co-authored or sponsored that did end up passing, these acts were much less substantive in nature, and actually don't follow much of a direction or theme...

Obama's "Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act" ended up passing. This act does sound very impressive, but what it actually means is that the US government will be forced to post their budget online so that everyday Americans can search through it (thus transparency). Okay, so it means post the budget online... this is much less impressive and substantial than it sounds. The same inconsequentiality applies to Obama's "Transparency and Integrity in Earmarks Act".

Another current in Obama's legislative acts is lead-poisoning and mercury poisoning. This has also been a strong theme behind his senatorialship. Again, this sort of legislature is easy, palatable, bubble-gum fare (who's going to say no against restricting lead content?). And once again, his legislature doesn't really follow a cohesive direction. No wonder Obama hasn't been specific about what he stands for... because his legistation doesn't stand for anything specific either.

Hillary Clinton on the other hand, although she hasn't authored as many acts as Obama has, has been pivotal in passing substantive law that does get implemented. Also, these laws are consistent with issues (healthcare, women and children's issues, education) she has always championed as a young lawyer, as a first lady, and is championing now as the central message of her campaign. I have quoted her website:

Healthcare:
*Hillary passed legislation to track the health status of our troops so that conditions like Gulf War Syndrome would no longer be misdiagnosed.

Economy:
*She helped pass legislation that encouraged investment to create jobs in struggling communities through the Renewal Communities program

Education:
*She has passed legislation that will bring more qualified teachers into classrooms and more outstanding principals to lead our schools.

In this argument, I have not included all of the legislature that Clinton authored, but which did NOT pass, something which Obama supporters are so willing to tout for their own candidate. Nor have I included national legislature that she authored and implemented as first lady, such as the "State Children's Health Insurance Program", which has provided millions of children with health insurance, and the "Vaccines for Children Program", both of which she designed and championed. Finally, I have not included the disastrous health-care reform program that she chaired as first lady, which, although a failure, was a much more substantive effort than any Obama has ever launched.

All in all, there is something to be said about Clinton being more substantive than Obama, an opinion that is echoed in the official New York Times endorsement of Clinton as the Democratic nominee for president.

B**ch is the New Black

This week's Saturday Night Live was hilarious, with Tina Fey, Saturday Night Live's former head writer, giving a scathing, and smart attack on the media's blatant favoritism of Barack Obama over superior presidential candidate (in my opinion) Hillary Clinton.

The opening debate was a mockery of the debate in Texas (which I did not watch because I was in class), with the media giving Hillary impossibly harsh questions, which she could do nothing against but answer in an ingratiating fashion. In contrast, the debate moderator chose "Obama Girl", from the audience to ask Obama a question. "Obama Girl", a real life fan of Obama who admits to having a crush on Obama, serenaded Obama with a sultry, "I have a crush on Obama" song.

So what was the media response to this scathing attack from the late night comedy show? Nothing of course. They will give no positive news regarding Hillary Clinton. A Google search for "Clinton SNL" yielded nothing from the official media. The only sites found were from blogs. When Oprah Winfrey endorses Obama, the major news networks are all over themselves to report the event. However, when Saturday Night Live, which is as famous a TV show as any, endorses Hillary Clinton, there is not a peep.

Speaking of Oprah Winfrey, Tina Fey delivered a funny-as-hell rant fully in support of Hillary, and making fun of Oprah. It was from this rant that I get today's blog title, "B**ch is the New Black".

"And finally, the most important Women’s News item there is, we have our first serious female presidential candidate in Hillary Clinton. And yet, women have come so far as feminists, that they don’t feel obligated to vote for a candidate just because she’s a woman. Women today feel perfectly free to make whatever choice Oprah tells them to.

And maybe what bothers me the most is that people say that Hillary is a bitch. And let me say something about that: yeah, she is, and so am I. And so is this one (pointing at Amy Poehler). And you know what, bitches get stuff done. That’s why Catholic schools use nuns as teachers and not priests. Those nuns are mean old clams, and they sleep on cots and are allowed to hit you. And at the end of the school year, you hated those bitches, but you knew the capital of Vermont. So, I’m saying it’s not too late Texas and Ohio. Get on board. Bitch is the new black!"

Year 2007 in Summary, Part 2

(Santa Cruz Wharf to Wharf Race)

I am following up the first half of my year's summary by saying that this past year wasn't all bad. If there was crushing disappointment, it was also a year of good relationships, and also a year of great physical fitness, maybe even the best of my life. The previous year, 2006, I had lost a few friends because of arguments, or because we had simply grown apart. This past year, however, I made some close, new friendships, and found myself surrounded by positive people. Strangely, I find myself to be well-known, and in the center of groups - something I rarely experience.


That is not to say I don't have things to work on when it comes to relationships. I am still working on having more tact for instance, and refraining from talking before I think (New Year's Resolution #1). Also, I need to work on communicating things that are unpleasant to others, and to stop compromising things internally before I even negotiate (New Year's Resolution #2), which is hugely frustrating for me, and had even in some ways lead to my financial problems.


Financially, there was an unusually large amount of cash flowing out of the M. & M. household due to home renovation, toys, and unfortunately, financial irresponsibility:
(1) Bamboo wood floors
(2) Popcorn ceilings removed
(3) American Clay walls - in other words fancy pants plastered walls
(4) Interior decorating costs
(5) Repainting costs
(6) Custom, exotic hardwood coffeetable
(7) M. and M.'s brand spanking new DUI drysuits
(8) Cozumel and Alaska vacation
(9) Late fees applied to HOA


Yes, you got that right: I lost thousands of dollars in late fees, and debt to the HOA. Which leads to attempting to be more financially responsible and organized (New Year's Resolution #3), even though it may mean a few less hours of enjoyment, and a few more hours of pain.


Physically speaking, it has been an excellent year.
(1) I ran the Wharf to Wharf in Santa Cruz and had a blast. I had never run 6 miles straight before. (See picture above).
(2) I work out at the gym at least twice a week.
(3) I can swim up to 1 mile at a time.
(4) And I will run up to 3 miles at a time regularly.
If I could continue the focus on having a buff bod this coming year, than I will have achieved my wishes (New Year's Resolution #4).


As far as work is concerned, I have less concrete goals, and more state-of-mind goals. If I can be less hateful and angry, and try to catch myself before I think these distracting thoughts (New Year's Resolution #5) than I think I could perform at work even better, and also be a happier person. This also combines with my work goals of learning the value of time better (New Year's Resolution #6), and finishing off what I start (New Year's Resolution #7).



Finally, my ultimate goals of travel and adventure have been temporarily placed on hold. I am evaluating whether I need to give up these goals or not, and whether or not these goals are contradictory to my financial goals. I am sure I will keep you all posted.

Year 2007 in Summary, Part 1

I've been thinking a little about why I blog and what I'm trying to get out of it. I think that by blogging, I'm trying to prove that my life existed in the world, no matter how insignificant or small my life is. Also, it has been a fun and creative outlet. Now that it is a new year, I want to lay down my thoughts about 2007. This past year has certainly gone by like a flash, and I wanted to memorialize how I've grown and the events that have taken place.

First of all, this year was set apart by the ABSENCE of bad things. I didn't crash any cars, or have any mid-life crises. Nor did I hate my job, or hate my boss, or hate my fiance etc. We didn't move, nor did we change jobs. All in all, life was very stable.

My friends, however, were a whole different story. I felt like I was the eye of a hurricane, the calm amidst a storm. Without naming names, my friends experienced major break-ups as well as marriages. There were multiple pregnancies and births. There was even marital intervention that took place at the San Francisco Zoo (the giraffe exhibit, to be precise).

If there was an absence of spectacularly bad things, that is not say that there wasn't grinding disappointment either, especially in my career. If you had talked to a younger Mina, she would have thought that I had truly succeeded. I have released not just medical devices, but these past couple of years, I have released, not one, but two high-volume, popular, mass-produced products. Seeing my accomplishments in this light, I can genuinely say I'm proud. So, where does the disappointment come from?

I am very disappointed at where I am in my career. I did not get promoted after the products I helped design and launch, but instead saw people all around me get promoted for accomplishing less. I felt crushed, and thought the world was out to get me. I got so angry thinking that people were out to crush my spirit. Why was I always the person who got the brunt of all of the punishment when everyone else got rewarded? What's worse, I had withheld several materialistic rewards for myself for when I did get promoted. For instance, I really wanted a drysuit for several years, but wouldn't get one until after the promotion. Also, I promised I'd celebrate the impending promotion with a dinner reservation at Chez Panisse. Finally, I had set up a deadline for myself. If no promotion occurred, I would definitely ship out and move out.

So what happened, and how did I justify it all to myself? First of all, after many evenings crying to myself, I began to see it from the point of view of my bosses. There WERE things that I could improve in myself. There were certain lapses in skills that I needed to fill. My struggle this year, is to work on those lapses in skills before I get so bitter and disenchanted with life that I don't snap peoples' heads off. More on this later, perhaps in a New Year's Resolutions blog.

Blog to be continued...

Fun for Fun's Sake

I recently had a conversation with a coworker, and I realized that I hadn't had fun for fun's sake in a very long time. My fiance and I never seem to go anywhere for long weekends anymore. This recent Thanksgiving was the first in a while when I haven't actually gone anywhere. "Working on the house is fun, but it is fun that is focussed towards something constructive. What about having fun for no reason?" My coworker poised this question, and it took me aback. What do I do for fun's sake? I couldn't think of anything, really. Here is a list of fun things that I think I do for no apparent reason:

(1) Read
(2) Watch movies
(3) Soak in the hot tub
(4) Window shop
(5) Yoga
(6) Soak in the sun
(7) Instant messaging with friends
(8) Painting
(9) Blogging
(10) Cafe society

Macho Things I Want to Do

Since I'm on a "macho" streak, I wanted to make a list of the macho things I've always wanted to try. I don't know too many girls who can lay claim to wanting to do these things, at least heterosexual women such as myself. Well, maybe one. My friend, Valerie, who is twice as macho, and is more charged with adrenaline than anyone I know. She prides herself in being a "mangina", owns a Ducati motorcycle, likes to spearfish, and is a hard-core scuba diver. She is also very pretty, which is really surprising combined with her gung-ho personality. OK, here's my macho to-do list:

(1) Own a gun - for my self-protection, of course, but also because it is bad-ass to own a gun
(2) Learn Krav Maga, an Israeli street fighting martial art - of all of the martial arts, I think this one is one of the most lethal
(3) Set off explosives - not for destroying property, but purely for cathartic reasons
(4) Learn how to handle my car expertly - my car (a Mini Cooper) is built for superb handling, and I would like to know where its limits are
(5) Learn how to ride a motorcycle - this I unfortunately tried and failed miserably at. I had even got a motorcycle (Kawasaki Ninja 250) picked out for myself, but got kicked out of class before I could become a terror on the roads
(6) Do pull-ups (see previous post)
(7) Be a good machinist - this was a previous goal of mine, and I was on the verge of being 'apprenticed' by the machinists at work. But I really don't want to do this anymore, because I would rather pay someone else to do this, leaving me to do more design:)

Some observations on being a "macho girl":

• This tendency seems stronger in Asian women than in Caucasian women. Or perhaps this is just a relic of being in the Silicon Valley, where there are more Asian women than Caucasian women.
• Society these days encourages women to explore their masculine side, and men to explore their feminine side. My fiance for one, is not ashamed of what can be considered as his feminine interests. He enjoys tending to orchids, cooking, and pruning bonsai trees. His focused interest on these traditinally unmasculine hobbies is perhaps one of the things that attracted me to him.
• For better of for worse, society has seen women foray further and further into male domain. Women have gained enthusiasm for sports, since the advent of Title IX. They've also been more masculine in their sexual aggression, as expressed by this NY Times article on "Macho Girls". But I have not yet read about a growing movement of women wanting to fire guns, or outman men in the weight-room. I guess we "macho" women are still ahead of the curve.